Tigers' Daniels turns butterflies into MSC titles

BOYS TRACK-- Elmwood Park's Lonny Daniels admitted he entered Saturday's Metro Suburban Conference boys track championships with butterflies. But at the end of the day, the senior walked away from Fenton Stadium with two conference titles.

Daniels finished first in the pole vault (12 feet, 3 inches), and won the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.5. Not a bad day, that was delayed 18 hours by poor weather.

"I feel great," Daniels said. "I've been working at it all season. It's a great feeling. Now it's on to sectional, where I will be working on automatically qualifying for pole vault and the 110."

Daniels missed qualifying in the 300 hurdles and the long jump. He finished third in the 300 (43.8), and took fifth in the long jump (18-3).

Nevertheless, getting two conference titles was satisfying as he helped Elmwood Park to 85 points and a second-place showing in the team standings. Riverside-Brookfield won the event with 92 points, while host Fenton was third (68) and Ridgewood fourth (27).

"Obviously you always want to be first," Tigers head coach Matt Weldon said. "We were seeded 16 points behind RB and we ended finishing up seven points behind them. To close nine points on a team as well as RB is fantastic. "

Elmwood Park's other conference titles came from Matt Plata, who won the 100 dash in a school record of 10.9 seconds, and the 200 in 23.3.

Bart Marczyk tied Daniels mark of 12-3 in the pole vault, but placed second because it took him more jumps. Marczyk also finished second in the 400 dash (51.3) and third in the 100 dash (11.1).

"Matt had a great day, setting a school record in the 100," Weldon said. "This is the strongest team I've had in a long time. I had some good teams when I started, but is one of my best. We have a good group going to sectional."

Merek Gruszka was runner-up in the high jump (5-3), while Wojciech Szymanski took third in the 110 high hurdles in 15.8.

Elmwood Park is in the Glenbard South Sectional on Friday. The field events will begin at 4:45 p.m., while the running events will start at 5:30 p.m.